Since I was on holiday last week, I was keen to get back on my bike, especially after a wet weekend, and 50mph winds yesterday. The forecast for Tuesday was for sunshine. But with my Pilates commitment on a Tuesday morning, I decided to offer a ride starting at 1pm see if anyone might be free to join me for a local loop to Wargrave Marina cafe. I then discovered that it's not open on Tuesdays, so H'artisan would be our destination! 😂 (Velolife only have one cafe now, so I kind of expected they would be open every day.)
Kim signed up to join me, and then Sue said she would also like to come. Great. Unfortunately, this morning Kim had to cancel, but Sue and I were very happy to get out anyway. Then about 12.00 Louise messaged to say her plans had changed, and she would like to join us too. So we were back to 3.
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| The sheep are back in Hurst, as we turn to head up Castle Hill. |
We started out via Hurst then to Hinton Road, passing the Green Man pub, and then onto Hungerford Lane. Down a couple of narrow lanes to pick up Sill Bridge Road to WSLawrence. We stopped for a quick drink at the church, and spotted a new "feature".
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| photo by Sue. The space for 2 lots of hips is pretty tight! 😂 |
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| The name on the chair is the farmer who has "the hay stack". |
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| Saddle cam selfie using Sue's bike. |
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| The timeless pub at WSL. |
We swung around the back lane, skirting Shottesbrook park, to make our way to White Waltham onto Butchers/Bottle Lane, and cut through a little section of the Knowl Hill circuit to avoid the A4 junction. I was on my road bike for a change, and even that was fine on this section of off road. We've had a LOT of rain, so I wasn't sure about it, but hubby had been there this morning on his road bike.
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| A good cloud spotting day. Highfield Road views. |
We arrived to an almost empty Hartisan, only to find that they close at 3pm! It was 2.55. They were happy to serve us, and didn't feel rushed, as we sat in the garden.
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| Under the canopy at H'artisan for our 3pm cuppa. |
Our return was just 8 miles, and we opted to come along the main road between Wargrave and Twyford. (not busy). But a huge long queue of traffic (school coming out time), once we cross the A4 heading to Twyford, and we nipped on the pavement to get to the front at the traffic lights.
